Investors owed €200m (£179m) by Independent News & Media hold the whip hand in negotiations over the future of the company, the owner of the Independent and Independent on Sunday, after it emerged that it has successfully renegotiated €590m worth of debt that was due to mature next year.

The successful debt rollover deal means that the only thing preventing INM from embarking on a turnaround involving asset sales is a consortium of investors who have €200m worth of bonds that are due to mature on 19 May. Failure to reach a deal could result in INM's collapse or a firesale of assets.

But reports at the weekend that INM's two biggest shareholders, Sir Anthony O'Reilly and Denis O'Brien, are willing to stump up €30m of their own cash to help reach a settlement is believed to have emboldened these bondholders, who are now pushing for more cash or better terms if they are to roll over their money.

INM had hoped to have a deal with the bondholders done by the time of its 2008 results presentation tomorrow, but it now looks likely that talks will continue up to next month's deadline. "It is a mammoth game of chicken," said a source close to the negotiations.

The company is hoping that a successful renegotiation of its debts will allow it to embark upon a sale of non-core assets from a position of strength, rather than having to accept any deal just to get some cash.

However, when its 2008 results are unveiled tomorrow, INM is expected to say that it will try to stem the losses at its London-based Independent titles, rather than launching an outright sale.

The company is understood to have received a number of expressions of interest in the Independent and Independent on Sunday but nothing that could be considered a formal bid. INM has been working with City advisers Lazards and NM Rothschild on possible disposals, although neither has an actual board mandate to sell the UK newspapers.

A spokesman for INM declined to comment.

Tomorrow the company is expected to admit that talks to sell its 49% stake in German price comparison site Verivox and 20.4% stake in online gambling software firm Cashcade are at an advanced stage. Analysts reckon they could be worth about €50m.

South African outdoor advertising business INM Outdoor is also on the block, with analysts reckoning it could sell for upwards of €100m.

If a debt rollover deal cannot be done by Thursday, INM's auditors, PWC, are unlikely to be able to give the company a clean bill of health and will be forced to include a condition in their report on the figures.

INM is understood to have asked its bondholders to extend their investments until 2012 in return for repayment of about 15% of the initial sum and a hike in the current 5.75% interest on the bonds to closer to 8%. The bondholders are understood to want more cash up front.

Their position is in stark contrast to the banking syndicate controlling a further €590m facility available to INM, which was due to mature next year. They are understood to have extended the facility for a further three years from next September in return for a near doubling of the interest rate payable by INM.

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Staff at the Independent are used to living with uncertainty but INM's failure to repay a £179m bond, a move to the Mail's offices and more rumours of a sale have taken morale to a new low, says ex-staffer Ciar Byrne